Landscaping 2012: The Power of The Testimonial

The Lesser of Two Weevils
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World — MOVIECLIPS.com

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In this short video clip, I give you the range of the Left's positions for the general election of 2012. Some of us will vote for Mr. Obama because we believe in the man as Captain Jack Aubrey believed in Nelson, and others will be casting a vote for the lesser of "two weevils." The dilemma we face is how we will think of the man and how we will portray him to our compatriots on both sides of the aisle between now and the day of the vote.

If we claim Obama makes our hearts glow, are we being mere enthusiasts? If we jump on the recently crowded bandwagon that proclaims disgust with the president's decision to preserve banks and Wall Street at the beginning of his administration, do we feed the Right Wing's Obama-bashing campaign and fuel the GOP's divide-and-conquer agenda? I hear trusted pundits cheer for the President's feisty new persona and I read praise for his recent program of executive orders, but the criticisms from his own base are more apparent, too. It's one thing to cringe at the manic silliness of Perry hugging a bottle of maple syrup or Koch-head Cain sneering at us through his campaign strategist's tobacco fug and decide that these candidates lack presidential gravitas; it's another to appreciate character when we see it for ourselves.



Americans love testimonials. When we want to know whether to hire someone to fix a faucet or hang a cabinet, we seek a firsthand report. When we try to factor out the White House press engine's spin and the House of Representative's demonizing, as we puzzle over what manner of man the incumbent president might be, we may wish we could consult an Angie's List for Character. I know two whole humans who can offer us their personal experiences with Barack Obama. They've agreed to share their impressions. Short of sitting down with POTUS myself, I've sought the opinions of trusted friends who have. Call it Nance's List.

Meet Bill Groome, father, grandfather, griller, and all around good guy. I looked up to Bill in high school when he was a patrician, red-haired football hero; he didn't really remember a quiet girl two years behind him, but a Facebook group for Ragsdale High brought us together and we got met recently to discuss his meeting with Barack Obama. As you hear Bill's story, keep in mind that he was a Republican until he suffered a set-back that led him to the White House.

In November, 2009, Bill sent the following letter to the President and his Congressmen:

On December 22, 2008, I was informed that, since my employer, Bill Davis Racing, was no longer in business, I was unemployed.  Being unemployed at 63 is bad enough, but probably just as bad is the fact that, for the first time in my life, I had no health insurance.  While my wife still has a job, her employers choose not to offer a health care plan to their employees.

Like a number of others in that situation, I enrolled in an individual family plan, and we were covered as quickly as possible, 45 days.  The premium was $ 832 per month, but we were covered.  Just this past Friday, October 30, I received notice that the premium, beginning in January, would increase to $ 937 per month.

A few weeks ago I decided that I should have a colonoscopy, since I am almost 14 years overdue.  In fact I had set one up a year earlier, December 29^th, and canceled when my insurance disappeared on December 22^nd.  I scheduled one just a week ago for December 3^rd.  A day after I received the notice that my premiums were going up $ 105 a month, I received an estimate of my out of pocket costs for the colonoscopy:  $ 3,000!

I fully realize that a lot of people are worse off than I.  Mine is just one story that I feel needs to be heard by those who are under the tremendous responsibility of improving our health care system.

I guess that if I had health care coverage paid for, at least partially, by my employer or my former employer, I would not want to change the health care system either.  I am afraid that now there is a new definition of “Haves” and “Have Nots.”  The new definition may be  “Have health insurance” and “Have Not health insurance.”

Bill Groome

Asheboro, NC

Barack Obama and William J. Groome, March, 2010

In response, Bill was tapped in March, 2010, to come to the White House to meet Mr. Obama and be on hand for the signing of the Patient Affordable Care Act. After the formal signing and a White House tour, each of the small group of letter-writers who'd been called to Washington got to speak to the President individually. Bill says, when it was his turn, they talked Carolina basketball and the President thanked Bill for his letter. Bill describes his impressions in his own words...

When he talks to you, he looks you in the eye like you are the only person around.  He seems genuinely interested in you and what you are saying.  In my opinion, he is, among other things, a fine and decent man.  And he is real!  And I keep thinking, why would such a busy man, who is the most powerful man in the world, on such a monumental day, meet with a small group of ordinary citizens.  Why?  Why would we get such VIP treatment? 

 After each had chatted with him and had pictures made, he addressed us all as we sort of semi-circled in front of him.  His message was that people that send him letters are what he counts on to keep him informed on what he needs to do.  He acknowledged that he couldn’t do everything that needed to be done, but he uses the voices of citizens like us to give him guidance.  He said, and I remember this well, that this day was not his day, but our day. 

A couple of months ago, when Bill told me the story of his meeting with the President, he was still excited, still an unabashed Obama enthusiast. His politics had taken an about-face. His vote in November 2012 will be a vote FOR Barack Obama. Don't talk to William J. Groome about "the lesser of two weevils."

Meet "Ashleigh Burroughs," the name you'll often see here in Comments and the name by which I knew this lovely Tucsonan before a brutal shooting in a Safeway parking lot pitched her into the headlines. A/B, as she signs herself, met Barack and Michelle Obama under the most difficult of circumstances: in her room in a Tucson hospital following surgery to repair the damage three bullets had wrought.

A/B's world had been ripped at the seams. Her senses were acute, despite the lingering effects of anesthesia. She's spoken of her impressions of the President to the likes of Brian Williams of NBC. When I asked her recently to share them with me, she provided me with stream-of-consciousness reactions to be passed along to you. In her own words...

He is a slim, tall, almost ethereal man (vs Michelle who is Earth Mother Incarnate). He is well-brought up and polite - waited at my door to be asked to enter, asked permission to take my hand - and it didn't seem put on or phony - it's part of how he was raised.

 He really listened - I heard "make this world the kind of place Christina Taylor Green imagined"...[before] the world heard it on stage.

 I felt safe in his presence...he felt REAL, if that makes sense...there wasn't any artifice or presumption of "how wonderful am I."

 He was truly overwhelmed by what had happened to me - he's a dad and that came thru big time...It came from my crying that I couldn't understand how evil like that could exist in the world (ah, the wonders of drugs - no barrier [between] mouth and brain!)

He really heard that - he wasn't just talking to hear himself blather...he's a real guy.

Visit with A/B yourself at her blog, The Burrow; you'll find her doing remarkably well in both body and spirit. No "mere enthusiast," she'll be voting FOR Mr. Obama in November 2012.

I met Richard Nixon once. My mother took me and my cousins to meet him when he stopped by our little Greensboro WFMY-TV station for an interview as he made the rounds. He greeted my mother, patted a few kid's heads including mine. When he moved on to my cousin Donna's neat part, he back-tracked to my mother to point at Donna and say, "She's obviously YOURS!" I despised the man. It's hard to fool even a child, face-to-face. 

Thank you to Bill Groome and Ashleigh Burroughs for taking the time to share their stories. May they serve you, Dear Reader, as you choose your own message on the election. Remember that old business school saw about the power of the negative review.